I learnt the same lesson with IFA's years ago with my pensions. if your going to invest check it out yourself, why let somebody else waste your money when you can do it yourself and possibly if your lucky make money.
Consolidation has always lost me money in the Past, just look at VGM 50:1 consolidation went right up to £2.00 per share and now look 6.5 p. although that was a different area of the market.